Now

Page last updated: August 2023 | inspired by Derek Sivers and his Now project. 

Interactive Fiction (IF): finally getting to dive back into this old passion of mine. Playing some adventures, small and large. Watching documentaries, listening to podcasts, coming up to date with the community. Re-developing my own, old adventures in new tools and code such as TAB, Twine, Adrift, and Inform.  My second IF game called Xanadu is available on ThinBASIC Adventure Builder's (TAB) Catventure site. My first game called Palace of the Silver Princess is available upon request. More at Indoors/Interactive Fiction.

Financial Independence: volunteering with the Pittsburgh ChooseFI network to administer the group, have meetups for discussion, etc. Hoping to share my knowledge and also learn from others.

Education and new skills: learning to ride motorcycles, seeking amateur radio skills and possibly license, wine and spirits education (WSET Wine level 1 done, possibly the next step in 2024,) lining up additional SCUBA certifications (advanced wreck diving done!) and thinking about sailing skills/resume building and license. Also getting additional outdoors' training including avalanche terrain travel (through AIARE American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education) (Level I done in 2023 - good to go for now) and wilderness first responder (much more intensive than wilderness first aid) training.  🗞️I've been distilling the idea of language study abroad, almost certainly Spanish, in small doses.

Travel: overall goal is to have visited as many countries as my age (I have a lot of catching up to do.) To that end, planning to visit Southwest Asia in 2023 and did plenty of travel in 2023. More in the works for 2024. Domestically, focused on visiting national parks and monuments whenever possible. More at Travel.

🗞️Climbing: continuing to seek out new meccas of rock and ice (CA in winter 2023 and the Dolomite in 2024) and visit old ones (Red Rock Canyon and Kalymnos happened in 2023). One mountain still of interest: Alpamayo in Peru - achieved (bonus: summit!) in 2023. Achieved goal of 50 summits in 2022, and a few more on top of that. I'm now content - no more mountains of serious interest, though I'm not ready to stop altogether - there will be more, just not burning desires (Forbidden/Torment Traverse, Mt. Sir Donald, etc.) More at Climbing.

Reading: definitely back into reading now that I'm "retired" (rewired); trying to read at least one book per month and exceeding that goal currently. Good balance of fiction and non-fiction. More at Books.

Brainwork: the New York Times crossword puzzles were always, seemingly out of reach for me -  considered to be the most difficult and made by the best of the best puzzle constructors. It's time to brush off my old base-level puzzle skills and aspire to  develop the skills to  crack these ultimate crosswords. I'm delighted to find that there is a weekly progression in difficulty and that the easier ones are already achievable with my latent skills - I feared something all my life that I should not have!

🆕Pantheon / Tribe of Mentors:  If I could have regular get togethers, calls, drinks, or conversations with these people, they would be my set of mentors (big/broad thinkers, bright lights, mavens,  polymaths, and modern day philosophers). As it is, I am resigned to virtual relationships by tuning into their conversations and creative work via the many channels available. Derek Sivers, Tim Ferriss, Kevin Kelly, Tim Urban, Ryan Holiday, Rolf Potts, Sam Harris, Oliver Burkman, Esther Perel, Jamie Wheal, and a few others. Send me your recommendations!

For more detailed, blog-like news, see...well...News!

Key:🗞️= newest updates and 🆕 = any new sections